Emma Clara Graber-Stucky

is honored with a Premium Paver from Joe and Emma Stucky.

Emma Clara Graber-Stucky was born March 5, 1923 to Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Schwartz. Her mother died in childbirth and she was adopted by a childless uncle and aunt, John H. and Louise Graber. This was a Mennonite family who spoke German in their home, so Emma Clara learned to speak English when she started to school. Her parents gave her all the opportunities they could, and she became an accomplished pianist, organist, and marimbist. As a senior in high school, she played in the Chicago Imperial Marimba Symphony under the direction of Clair Omar Musser.

She entered Bethel College as a music major and was starting her junior year in 1943, when she was approached by the Pretty Prairie Grade School Board to take over the teaching duties of a person who was to be drafted into military service. Her salary was $110 per month. She taught with an emergency certificate for four years.

During the next ten years, she married and became the mother of three children. At the end of that time, she decided to return to teaching. She taught school, finished her education, helped her husband in their farming business, and raised her family to become contributing members of their community.

Her three children all graduated from Wichita State University with honors. Scott Stucky, Washington D.C., is a Colonel in the USAFR. He graduated from Harvard School of Law and is currently the General Counsel for the Senate Armed Services Committee. Valerie Stucky is also in Washington D.C, and is an employee of NASA. Judi Stucky-Jacobsen, Mission Hills, KS is a Licensed Securities Broker.

Emma Clara retired from teaching after 28 years, and ran the family business during the eight years her husband, Joe, was a Reno County Commissioner. In short, we have a wife/mother who lives a successful public and family life. She serves her community and her church well, having been a church organist for over 50 years.

No one deserves the status of Heroine more.

August 31, 1998